


For Want of a Question, Freedom was Lost

by palmedfire



Category: Young Wizards - Duane
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-20
Updated: 2009-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-04 17:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palmedfire/pseuds/palmedfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They are walking into a trap, but not of her making.  Still, they will blame her, and all she can do is regret the missed opportunities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want of a Question, Freedom was Lost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Senri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senri/gifts).



> This is my first time writing in this fandom, and this fic took several false starts. Still I think it came out pretty well in the end. Please enjoy! Thanks to dreamwidth's everchagingmuse for betaing

_Of all the wizards in the universe, the Powers would see fit to send those two._ Esemeli led Nita and Kit further down into the caves, deeper and deeper until time and space started twisting around themselves. None of them talked much, which bothered her somewhat. While she had no love for idle conversation, it had been ages upon ages since she'd had anything close to interesting interaction. Even the rare introduction/challenge of a new Alaadia wizard had ceased to be more than a minor wave in an endless sea of boredom.

Not that she could blame either of them for not wanting to talk to her. They didn't trust her, and rightly so. She was, after all, leading them into a trap. But was it really her fault they had forgotten to ask the right questions? She'd been prepared to help those two anyway, deal with them if not fairly, at least not with any unusual amount of deception. But no, they distrusted her, as wizards always did. Nita had made her swear, so she had. Oh Nita. That girl had so much fascinating potential. Who else would have been ballsy enough to make Esemeli swear that particular oath? And what other wizard would have been foolish enough to swear it over something so minor?

It was a pity they would all be trapped now, and together. She would have liked to talk to Nita alone. Kit was too straightforward in his distrust, such a stubborn stone wall of proper wizardly defiance. Nita on the other hand.… Oh yes, she was far, far more interesting. Yes, to subvert of course, but even just to talk to. And if she'd just been able to get the girl away from her partner, if just for a little while, they might have been able to do that. Nita was always more willing to think around things, try to see all the angles. She'd have talked just to try to figure Esemeli's motive, even if there hadn't been one past conversation. That would have been amusing in and of itself.

But no, that chance had never materialized, and now it never would. They wouldn't see their own haste had sprung the trap around them, just as the Alaalids hadn't, still didn't, see the trap they'd caught themselves in. So many mistakes made, all for the sake of feeling safe. Nothing was safe. Safe was boring, stale, pointless. No matter what those other fool Powers might think, the universe was a better place for having entropy, after all. Without an ending, how could things really begin? Without death, how could any of the universe's creatures really live? She ground her teeth in ancient frustration. They should have realized the beauty of her invention. If it was so truly against the One's plan, could It not have destroyed entropy? She'd been cast as the villain so many times; it had just been easier to be that villain. But even the endless varieties of that role grew boring over the ages. Now she was stuck manipulating wizards just to have something interesting to do. Wizards who couldn't even be bothered to have a halfway normal conversation with her. No, it was always oaths and bindings and ceremonial greetings.

Still, she respected wizards in general, and these two in particular, though they would probably be surprised to discover that. They were so small, so comparatively insignificant, and yet so earnest. It made them interesting. The Alaalid wizards had gotten so complacent in their security that they had lost all sincerity in their challenges. They thought they had already won, the fools. But these two, oh no, they thought her dangerous, wouldn't or perhaps couldn't believe her harmless and had even thought to bind her in that cursed oath.

If only those two had actually succeeded. She'd wanted them to. She'd have never sworn if there had been another way to escape. If only they had been able to talk Quelt around, but no. Apparently shortsightedness ran deep in the Alaalid wizard line. Not even the fact that they would never again stand in the way of her greater self was much consolation. She'd just traded one prison for another, and now there would be little way to get Nita especially to trust her, even the shaky, oath-enforced trust she had now.

To pass the time on the long, silent walk, she imagined if things were different, if they had brought Quelt with them. In that case the oath would have been worth something. After all, wizards always forgot that oaths and bindings were subject to entropy just as much as anything else. Someday that binding Nita had laid, that she and Kit had put their faith in, that too would break and she would be free to do as she liked with either of them. And then perhaps she could have that conversation she wanted, away from the girl's all-too paranoid partner. Maybe then Nita could be talked around, made to see the truth, the usefulness of entropy. Oh no, not of war and murder and such, the girl was too honestly good at heart for that. But the necessity of endings, yes. The girl had nearly died how many times now? Didn't that near loss make life richer? Was a never-ending universe really worth living in without some ending to fight against?

It helped that Nita was human. While humans hadn't fallen in their Choice quite so much as other races they depended on conflict, needed enemies to fight against. Esemeli had no illusions of ever being Nita's friend, but best enemy? Oh that could be so easy, so much fun. The constant rivalry, fighting over and over with neither winning, until they knew each other better than anyone else. Well, that would be what Nita believed at least. The girl was half caught up in that circling conflict already. Just a little longer and she would start to respect her foe, not with that dry formalized respect all wizards had beaten into their heads with their Oath, but real respect. Personal respect. The kind that moved away from hatred into understanding. Into _liking_.

Yes, Nita would learn to understand her and then, maybe that other line, that thin, thin line between _liking_ and loving would be crossed as well. And wouldn't that be fun?


End file.
